Birds of a Feather

Birds are everywhere in the Bible! According to Genesis 1, God created birds even before animals and people. Later, Noah sent out a raven and a dove to see if the floodwaters were going down. After the Israelites left Egypt, God sent them quail in the desert to keep them from starving. When the prophet Elijah was scared and hungry, God told some ravens to bring him food. And the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a dove. Don’t you wonder why God chose a dove and not another animal or bird?
Birds live in every country on earth—even in Antarctica. Read on to find out more about our fine feathered friends!

Eat Like a Bird?

When people say “You eat like a bird,” they usually mean that you don’t eat much. But if you really ate like a bird, you’d have to eat hundreds and hundreds of times a day. The amount of food some birds eat in a day is equal to their own weight!

Weigh yourself and imagine eating that much food every single day. You’d have to spend almost all your time eating, as birds do.

Just like you, birds have their favorite foods. Yellow warblers like caterpillars. American goldfinches love thistle seed. And if you’ve ever watched robins after a rain, you know they go nuts for worms.

Watch a Chick Hatch

At the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago you can watch chicks breaking out of their shells at the Baby Chick Hatchery. Or you can watch a video from the museum at tinyurl.com/museumchicks. Chicks start to hatch about three weeks after the hen lays the egg. It can take hours—sometimes even a whole day—for a chick to peck its way out of the shell. It’s hard work!

Why You Can’t Fly

People have always wanted to soar through the air like birds. The great Leonardo da Vinci even tried to make mechanical wings for people to wear. But people just aren’t designed to fly. Here are some reasons why.

1. Birds have feathers to catch the air and push it down when they flap their wings. Humans just have a little bit of hair on their arms.
2. Birds have small, light bodies. Gravity doesn’t pull them down as much as it does humans.
3. Birds have hollow bones. Human bones are much heavier.
4. Birds have special air sacs in their bodies that put more oxygen into the bird’s body. That allows birds to fly without getting as tired as humans would.

To see a short but amazing slow-motion video of birds taking off and landing, visit tinyurl.com/Bannerbirds.

Eggpops

Try this fun and easy egg recipe.

First, have an adult show you how to hard-boil some eggs. Let them cool completely and then peel them. Next use a sharp knife to cut a small “X” in the bottom of each peeled egg. Carefully push a pretzel rod through the “X” about halfway up into the egg.
Dip each egg into ranch dressing and then dip it into your favorite toppings like bacon bits or finely chopped carrots, celery, or tomato. Enjoy!
—Original recipe from incredibleegg.org

Amazing Bird Facts

• There are about 10,000 different species of birds in the world.
• Most songbirds have between 1,500 and 3,000 feathers.
• Male ostriches can weigh up to 287 pounds (130 kilograms). One ostrich egg weighs about as much as two dozen chicken eggs!
• According to Guinness World Records, the world’s oldest known chicken lived to be 16. Most chickens live only between five and 10 years.